"Die weiße Spinne" or "The White Spider" is a West German film from 1963, so this one is already over 50 years old. It was directed by Harald Reinl, who is mostly known for his Winnetou works, and Egon Eis adapted the crime novel by Louis Weinert-Wilton. Eis also worked on many of the Edgar Wallace films from that time and that's the main reason why this film looks completely like a Wallace movie. At almost 100 minutes, it is slightly longer than these. But the cast also has parallels. Joachim Fuchsberger and Karin Dor were regulars in the series and same can be said about some of the other cast members. The film is basically all about Dor's character and how she has to prove she is innocent in terms of her husband's death and that she did not kill him to get her hands on his fortune. And just like with the Wallace films, nothing is safe in here, everything can happen and it does not take long till people doubt the man is actually dead. Was it murder? Suicide? An accident? Or is he fooling everybody and well alive? Watch for yourself! Or don't as, honestly, I could not have cared less at some point. This film also has the problems of the Wallace movies and one of these would be the realism. I just cannot take the film seriously from a dramatic perspective if it lacks realism on so many occasions, even some crucial moments, for example when a man is held at gunpoint and then pushes a desk at the guy with the gun, so that one falls out of the window and dies. This was not a good watch. Only check it out if you really really love Edgar Wallace and Egon Eis.
Review of Die weiße Spinne
